Put An End to the Slaughter of Women!
1,593
Signatures
1,000
Goal
By Asieh Amini
February 2, 2022
To:
António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations
Michelle Bachelet, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Javaid Rehman, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran
Reem Alsalem, Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, Its Causes and Consequences
---
A young man walks through the streets triumphantly, holding his wife's severed head in one hand and a butcher's knife in the other, smiling with pride. He has just "restored" his family's honor by killing his unfaithful wife. Millions of Iranians saw this scene in a documentary clip this week and shuddered. The horror of this incident is only heightened by the fact that it is the latest example of dozens of similar cases in recent years, indirectly sanctioned by the laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The murder took place on Saturday, February 5, 2022, in Ahvaz. The victim was 17-year-old Mona Heydari, the wife and cousin of the killer. With the help of his brother, the perpetrator decapitated Mona and displayed her head in public as proof of "restoring honor" to the people of the city.
Iran's Islamic Penal Code allows men to punish women in multiple ways. Article 630 of the Islamic Penal Code allows a man who catches his spouse in the act of sexual intercourse with another man to kill both of them. For men who kill their wives or daughters, the law makes it easier to avoid severe punishment. Article 301 of the same code exempts fathers and paternal grandfathers from Qisas, or "retribution in kind"—the primary form of punishment for murder under this law. This effectively grants impunity for honor killings carried out by fathers and grandfathers.
The structure of Iran's Islamic Penal Code, as it currently stands, provides de facto impunity for gender-based killings, honor killings, femicide, and family-related homicides by exempting offenders with familial relations to the victims from retributive punishments.
We call on you and your offices to use every mechanism at your disposal to urge the Islamic Republic of Iran to:
1. Change the Approach to Domestic Violence in Criminal Law: Reform laws relating to domestic violence, especially honor killings, to make them predictive and punitive. Violent acts against women by fathers, grandfathers, brothers, husbands, and intimate partners must be criminalized. Honor killings must be classified as premeditated murder and punished accordingly (as an alternative to the death penalty).
2. Revise and Pass the "Provision of Women's Security against Violence" Bill: Amend and pass the existing bill titled "the Provision of Women's Security against Violence" to include provisions in both the bill and the Islamic Penal Code that criminalize honor-related killings, especially those carried out by fathers, grandfathers, brothers, husbands, and intimate partners. This bill has been stalled in parliament for nearly a decade and has consistently been watered down, with key provisions removed due to conservative resistance. It urgently needs to be rewritten and enacted as an amendment to the Penal Code.
3. Ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW): Iranian laws must align with the general standards of women's rights as enshrined in CEDAW. This convention has been submitted to the Islamic Republic's Expediency Council for review for years, but no progress has been made.
4. Promote Cultural Change to Prevent Violence Against Women: To prevent violence against women, particularly honor killings, cultural institutions must be mandated to provide educational programs defining honor killings as crimes and social abnormalities. The government must commit to raising public awareness to change these deeply entrenched and genocidal traditions.
Along with the above demands, we urge you to use existing United Nations human rights mechanisms, including the Human Rights Council, the Universal Periodic Review, and Special Rapporteur mandates, to pressure the Islamic Republic of Iran to implement legal reforms aimed at reducing honor-related killings in the country. We, the undersigned, ask that you take immediate action to protect the lives of women and sexual minorities in Iran.
Recent events
-
See where all the votes are coming from
Province Number of signatures Alborz 34 Ardabil 8 Bushehr 7 Chahar Mahaal and Bakhtiari 5 East Azerbaijan 64 Fars 36 Gilan 43 Golestan 13 Hamadan 9 Hormozgan 6 Ilam 8 Isfahan 57 Kerman 15 Kermanshah 13 Khuzestan 58 Kohgiluyehv And Boyer Ahmad 2 Kurdistan 5 Lorestan 14 Markazi 21 Mazandaran 32 North Khorasan 1 Qazvin 11 Qom 9 Razavi Khorasan 51 Semnan 7 Sistan and Baluchestan 10 South Khorasan 2 Tehran 333 West Azerbaijan 18 Yazd 4 Zanjan 10 This petition has received 1,593 signatures so far. Approximately 80% of signatures come from Iran. Approximately 20% of signatures come from outside of Iran. Learn how Daadkhast generates signature maps. -
Latest signatures
-
-
سلاخی زنان را متوقف کنید ، جنایت علیه زنان را متوقف کنید .
-
در تمام ایران
-
اعتراض علیه کشتار زنان براثر قوانین شرعی.
-
سلاخی زنان را متوقف کنید!
-
-
Asieh Amini started this petition
توقف زن کشی